Doctor Who set for live episode to celebrate its 50th anniversary

Matt Smith, who plays the Eleventh Doctor in the long-running BBC science-fiction drama Doctor Who, has hinted that there will be a live episode to celebrate the show’s golden jubilee.

Speaking to Forbes at the weekend, while in New York to attend the US premiere of the new series, Smith said, “I feel very pleased and privileged to be a part of that year because it’s the biggest year in the show’s history. It’s his birthday, so it’s my birthday.”

Smith suggests that the golden anniversary episode will be special in more ways than one. “It won’t just be a televised event, I think it will be a live event,” he added. “The way it’s transmitted on TV will hopefully be an inventive thing – something different.”

Smith also said he was honoured to be playing the lead during the show’s landmark year: “I feel very pleased and privileged to be a part of [it] because it’s the biggest year in the show’s history.”

Talking about the show’s longevity, he said, “If you look at the history and heritage of the show, it’s always changed significantly [it’s] never be predictable. It’s a show that isn’t afraid of change, and I embrace that ultimately.”

Meanwhile, ahead of the latest series, the 29-year-old actor has also been speaking to Radio Times. “We want to make it as big and bold and as brilliant as we can because, we hope, it can be one of the monumental bits of TV history,” he says of the preparations for the 50th-annivesary year.

Doctor Who returns to television screens in September: in the UK on Saturday, 1 September (BBC 1); and in the US on Saturday, 8 September (BBC America).

Six new stories will be shown this year, including, in December, a Christmas special, which sees Jenna-Louise Coleman join Smith as the Doctor’s new companion. Eight further episodes will complete the current run in early 2013.

A further set of episodes be broadcast later in 2013, to coincide with the 50th anniversary itself.